Oscar-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal is set to produce and star in an adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comic book Oblivion Song, it was announced Tuesday.
Kirkman created Oblivion Song with artist Lorenzo De Felici in 2018, and the comic takes place a decade after 300,000 citizens of Philadelphia disappeared in a cataclysmic event known as Oblivion. The government made every attempt to recover them, but after many years they gave up. But protagonist Nathan Cole (Gyllenhaal) hasn’t given up, and he continues to make trips each day to find those who remain lost and missing.
The project was previously in development at Universal, though Brian Oliver and Bradley Fischer’s New Republic Pictures have since optioned the title, which will be developed as a feature film. Oliver and Fischer will produce alongside Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker of Nine Stories, and Oblivion Song will be the first project under Nine Stories' first-look deal with New Republic. Kirkman will also produce under his Skybound Entertainment banner along with David Alpert, Bryan Furst and Sean Furst.
“When faced with a cataclysmic event that permanently alters our lives, what would we choose to save? Just as Kirkman did with The Walking Dead and Invincible, in Oblivion Song he’s created the potential for a franchise that is profoundly entertaining, and the perfect opportunity to explore big questions we’re reckoning with globally,” Marker said in a statement hinting at Gyllenhaal's intentions to launch a franchise with this project.
It's hard to believe that the last time I saw Gyllenhaal on the big screen, it was as Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home. This is a guy who was robbed of multiple Oscar nominations between Nightcrawler and Stronger, and his list of credits is legitimately staggering, from Donnie Darko and Brokeback Mountain to Zodiac and Prisoners. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to Gyllenhaal's next two movies, as he'll soon be seen in Antoine Fuqua's Netflix movie The Guilty and Michael Bay's thriller Ambulance.
What else does the future hold for Gyllenhaal? He's slated to play Robert Evans in Barry Levinson's drama Francis and the Godfather, and he's set to star opposite Jessica Chastain in an adaptation of The Division that will now be directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber. As a producer, he has a bunch of projects in development at Nine Stories including Gilded Rage and The Helicopter Heist, and he's also attached to star in Apple's feature adaptation of the graphic novel Snow Blind. Gyllenhaal is represented by WME.